i am a musician and considering a mac...for Finale music software

[MrsBrady]

I need to purchase Finale music software.
http://www.finalemusic.com/finale/ I will be buying Finale 2008.

They make it for Mac and PC.

I have a PC that it can run on now, but everyone at the university uses Mac.
{I'm going back to finish my music degree, I'm a music comp major - that's another story. :) }
I was thinking of switching to Mac anyway, but this would be the primary reason.

I also have a midi compatible electronic piano that I can interface with the program and the computer.

Is there anyone out there that knows Finale and Mac??,
and can recommend what kind MAC laptop or desktop might work or be best for this kind of application.

Thanks!

[Pierre.Suave]

1. Why that software?

Is that the one you have the most experience with?

Have you tried Logic Pro?

edit: and for a cheaper mac, there are places. My fav is www.macconnection.com I have had GREAT experiences buying from them.

edit 2: The BEST mac for this would of course be the Mac Pro desktop, you can add up to 32gb of ram, and 4 terabytes of storage, with 4-8 processing cores at up to 3.2 ghz.

All that may be expensive, but you can obviously buy one without the 32gbs of ram, etc...

I know mac, if you have any mac questions, ask away.

[MrsBrady]

2. cool

Well, I have used Finale before, even though it's been a while.
and it's used quite a bit by professional composers.

Also I asked a professor up at school what everyone was kind of using right now.
I want to use a program that my colleagues are using.
Also, if i use Finale and Mac I can use it at home and then pull up my files at the music school computer lab if I need to.

your Mac advice is helpful.
I will be looking around in a couple of weeks, and kinda wanted to know where to start.
I appreciate your help.

[Pierre.Suave]

3. There are a lot of good people

here in the Mac group, that are very knowledgeable and willing to help, so ask away.

[NoQuarter]

4. I'm using Finale with a G5 iMac (1.9 GHz; 2.5GB)

Any of the current iMac configurations will do the job nicely.

If you're leaning toward the laptop, I would choose a MacBook Pro over a MacBook. The dedicated VRAM will make a difference with the constant screen updating.

[dhill926]

5. Any decent Mac will do.....

Finale doesn't use that many resources. I would go Mac Book Pro or an IMac. Logic Pro would be overkill for you, if you're mostly interested in notation software. It's a full blown sequencer whose notation capabilities aren't very good. Sibelius is also in wide use as a notation software.

[demodonkey]

6. I used to run Finale back in the 1990s on an SE (!!)

It was a 2-floppy SE with a HUGE 40MB (yes MB!) external hard disk.

It worked fine, except when you went to print out a four or five page manuscript, you would go out for coffee and come back and it was still printing. LOL. Times have sure changed.

[Sparkly]

7. Hi! I know Finale for PC, and just got a Mac

Finale worked fine on my PC, for notation purposes. Sibelius is a little more intuitive, though, and I've been using that more recently.

The Mac, as I understand it, is more streamlined for sequencing, recording, etc. and particularly when it comes to integrating music and video. I was having trouble getting my soundcard, software, and keyboard to play well together on the PC!

(I'm a piano performance major, btw -- but years ago! :hi:)